Wireless Sensor Tags Help You Keep Track of Your Stuff

Bicycle tag. Photo: Peter McCollough/Wired

Stuff goes missing. Maybe you misplaced something, or maybe one of the uninvited guests at your last shindig is “borrowing” it. Regardless, now you need it, and you can’t find it. But what if you could tag your possessions and keep tabs on them, like a researcher tracking so many wildebeests in the Serengeti?

You can, to a degree. CAO Gadget’s descriptively named Wireless Sensor Tags monitor movement, angle and temperature and send alerts to your iOS or Android device when things go awry — something moving that shouldn’t be (indicating theft or maybe an impending mauling by a puppy); the inside of an ice chest getting too warm, or the door to your liquor cabinet opening when only the kids are at home.

You set the parameters of what sort of notifications you want and how sensitive you want the system to be via app or web client. And while the two-inch-square circuit boards wrapped in an elastic theromplastic elastomer aren’t pretty, the system works.

The $15 tags ($12 if you purchase three or more at once) contain a 3-D digital magnetic sensor that tracks angle and motion, plus a temperature sensors. The tags include red a LED and an alarm that can be remotely triggered — perfect for finding misplaced stuff.

The tags themselves are a square circuit board wrapped in a flexible, durable shell with velcro straps. The sensors feed data to a Tag Manager ($70), a white box about half the size of a mouse that connects to a router via Ethernet. This base, which can handle up to 225 tags at once, connects to the local network and internet for remote access.

The tag system can be as simple or complex as the user requires, with granular adjustments and combinations of data tracking. For users wanting precise levels of control, the app and web client feature motion-sensitivity, threshold-angle and temperature adjustments.

The web client is straightforward with large buttons on the home screen detailing the features they access. The apps are strictly utilitarian, with default or white backgrounds and resemble OS-level settings apps, with sliders and on/off buttons for adjusting features, such as enabling an onboard alarm or setting a temperature threshold to tell you when an ice chest has gotten too warm.

Those alerts include system-level notifications, tweets and e-mails, and the tags can be set to arm and disarm during certain periods so that, say, you won’t get an alert when the cat knocks the remote control off the table in the middle of the night.

And while the notifications are helpful, the default settings may not jive with someone who wants to know the second a door has been opened or an object has been moved. Out of the box, the tags take a few seconds to alert the system. This delay is to preserve battery life and in our tests it could take up to 30 seconds for an alert to come through.

But if you decide to attach a tag to a priceless heirloom and need to know the second it moves, the web client offers access to advanced settings that can send alerts to as soon as something is moved. The trade off for this constant monitoring is battery life.

Whether you want a battery that lasts two months or 85 months, the system is a hobbyists/data nerd’s dream. Unfortunately, because of the size of the tags, it might be stuck at that level for now.

But if you can get past the looks — or hide a tag inside a device instead of attaching to the outside — this is a great way to keep your stuff from running wild.